Many swimming pool covers currently on the market include polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Environmentally harmful plasticizers, such as dioxin, are produced when PVC is incinerated and plasticizers may also leach into the swimming pool water when PVC is used as a swimming pool cover. PVC-containing swimming pool covers generally include plasticizers that become brittle and leach into the water due to sun damage resulting in loss of strength of the swimming pool cover. Currently, it is not technically or economically feasible to recycle PVC-reinforced pool cover materials.
A product life cycle starts with a design phase where the functional specifications are defined as well as the cost constraints. Materials are shipped to the factory which manufactures the product. Marketing and promotion create a demand for the product which then translates into sales for a successful product. The product is then purchased by a customer to whom a finished product is then shipped or is picked up by the buyer. What follows is hopefully a long satisfying service life. After a service period, the pool cover is usually replaced. The final part of the product life-cycle is concerned with discarding or recycling of the product after it has served its service life. A swimming pool cover is considerably large in size and heavy in weight.
Swimming pool covers can generally be categorized into one of two types: mesh pool covers and solid laminate pool covers. While mesh pool covers including recyclable polypropylene are known, the open weave structure of the mesh pool covers allows sunlight to get through and promotes the growth of algae in swimming pool water. What is lacking is a swimming pool cover, which combines the lightweight feature of the mesh pool cover, while it is 100% recyclable but which, unlike conventional mesh pool covers, has minimal maintenance by the fact that it reduces algae growth caused by sunlight penetration through a typical mesh swimming pool cover. Polypropylene is a 100 percent recyclable material. However, if part of a pool cover is made of polypropylene and part is made of a different material, such as a copolymer including PVC, the polypropylene bonds to the other material and cannot be extracted for recycling. While polypropylene does not emit contaminants such as plasticizers when burnt, it cannot be recycled if bonded to other plasticizer-containing products.
Additionally maintenance costs are associated with PVC-containing swimming pool covers in that they are known to become depressed by puddles of water. This permanent depression of solid laminate PVC covers adds to the maintenance costs in that water must be continuously pumped from the swimming pool cover or expensive drains are installed. The installed drains may further increase maintenance costs should they become clogged.